Mikkel Taanum

I'm a Counsel in our international Competition & EU group in Denmark and Head of our Nordic Gambling team. I specialise in gambling law, competition law and public procurement.

I have worked in the gambling sector since 2010 and I am one of the leading experts on gambling regulation in Denmark. In addition, I have been actively involved in the preparation of the Danish gambling legislation.

I advise licensed operators, platform providers, affiliates and other relevant parties on gaming law in Denmark and Sweden. This includes the complicated licence application process and issues relating to international transactions and handling of the transfer of licenses in this regard. I use my extensive experience and good relationship with the relevant authorities to help my clients get valuable, commercially useful and reliable advice.

I am a General Member of the International Master of Gaming Law (The IMGL – www.imgl.org). Its General Members are recognised as the leading experts in their jurisdictions and are involved in the most innovative and material developments and issues of the gambling sector. I often speak at gaming conferences, including the 2020 Eastern European Gaming Summit, 2022 and 2023 Scandinavian Gaming Show .

I authored the chapter on gambling regulation for a leading Danish legal textbook, which is used in a graduate level course in entertainment law offered by the law faculty of Copenhagen University.

Furthermore, I have written several articles and co-authored the Danish chapter in the International Comparative Legal Guide on gambling.

Drawing on my 15 years plus of working with competition law, I advise our clients on all aspects of Danish and EU competition law, including cases concerning Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), state aid and merger control. Prior to joining our firm, I worked at the Danish Competition Authorities where I participated in several dawn raids. My good relationship with the authorities benefits my clients and I advise clients who are subject to dawn raids, obtain merger clearance and deal with complaints about competition law violations. I regularly organise competition law training to identify current or potential violations for my clients and I design and help implement compliance programs.

I have deep-level experience of public procurement law where I advise on the entire spectrum of public procurement procedures. I advise all types of contracting authorities and private parties on the organisation and implementation of EU tenders, national tenders, public-private partnerships and other projects, including within the Defence and Security Directive. Furthermore, I have extensive experience in handling complaints submitted to the Complaints Board for Procurement and with handling complex procurement procedures with Danish contracting authorities.

• I act on behalf of international gambling providers, affiliates, platform providers and other relevant parties and advise on all aspects of gambling in Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
• I advise on a broad range of competition law cases, advising on agreements and practices, filing mergers, handling compliance and acting on behalf of private parties in complaint cases and cases before the Competition Authorities.
• I act for both private and public clients in public procurement cases and I handle public procurement processes on behalf of public clients.
• I regularly litigate before the Danish Public Procurement Complaints Board both on behalf of complainants and defendants.

• On behalf of Assemble A/S, I was successful in bringing a complaint against the Municipality of Sorø. The decision from the Complaints Board involved an annulment of the Municipality of Sorø's award decision for the purchase of an IT system, used for allocation of day care within the municipality.
• I was part of the Merger Filing Team within Bird & Bird when the Mastercard/NETS merger was notified to the Danish Competition and Consumer Authorities and the European Commission.